Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I have tried to speak to some of my crossbench colleagues in the upper house. I once again take the opportunity to do so. I urge coalition colleagues to look closely at this and to recognise that the stalemate we have at the moment, which does not allow lower income families to access youth allowance and also does not provide Commonwealth scholarships, is a lose-lose all around. Someone, somewhere, has to give something. We need this legislation to get through. I urge some sense to come into this process, which I now openly describe as the most embarrassing example of policymaking in my time. Please resolve it.

This is good legislation. I hope there is more that comes out of Bradley. I hope it comes soon and I hope we are now starting to see genuine engagement with lower SES areas, with Indigenous communities and with regional and rural communities such as the mid-North Coast of New South Wales. I hope we are not just repeating the folly of the last 60 years that has got us to this problem in the electorate of Lyne in the first place.

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